Epoxy resins have heretofore been advanced in the presence of phosphonium catalysts disclosed by Dante in U.S. Pat. No. 3,477,990 and Perry in Canadian Pat. No. 893,191 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,855. However, the quantities of catalyst employed were that which would provide a resin having a percent epoxide value sufficiently close to the theoretical epoxide value that no improvement in properties were envisioned.
The process of the present invention provides for the production of advanced epoxy resins having an improvement in one or more physical properties such as, for example, reactivity, glass transition temperature of the cured resins and the like. Resins having faster reactivity characteristics provide for increased productivity of articles produced therefrom over a unit time period. The increase in glass transition temperature of a cured resin permits articles prepared therefrom to be employed in higher temperature environments. Cured epoxy resins having increased glass transition temperatures provide products which can be employed in environments of higher temperatures i.e., the useful operating temperature is generally directly proportional to the glass transition temperature.